ENKA – The fingers-in-the-mouth, piercing whistle to get her players’ attention could be heard throughout even the loudest and most packed of high school gyms.

The stare, the white-hot intensity was felt by players not listening or performing, and the referees who disagreed that her team should have gotten the call.

And that kind of desire to win, that hatred of losing and those high expectations for her players to succeed is why it’s hard for Susan DeWeese to attend Enka High games, even several years after her retirement.

“I miss it a lot, especially the good seasons,” she said, sitting in a nearly empty Enka gym where some of her 708 victories were celebrated.

“It’s tough to come to games even now and not want to get out there and coach those kids, even if it’s not my job anymore.”

After a highly successful career as a basketball and volleyball coach, DeWeese still feels the desire, the need to mentor youngsters.

Waiting to start an interview last week at the gym, she fought the urge to give advice to a couple of girls shooting baskets. “I wanted to tell them they didn’t have the proper shooting form,” she said with a smile.

From 1975-2005, DeWeese posted a 491-196 record in volleyball and a 217-210 mark from 1980-97 as the Sugar Jets’ basketball coach.

And she did it with her own style, an intensity she had as a player at Reynolds High and as an assistant under legendary girls basketball coach Bill Rucker, a member of the WNC Sports Hall of Fame.

But she also earned the respect and love of her players, doing a lot more than just pushing them to be better athletes.

“It would be hard now to coach the way I coached,” she said. “I never really had any problems with parents, because I think they knew that I was doing everything I could to help their kids.”

Enka athletic director Brian Carver said DeWeese’s legacy at Enka remains long after she retired from teaching and coaching,

“Susan pretty much started the Sugar Jets tradition around here of success in girls’ sports,” Carver said.

“She influenced a lot of girls and brought them up with this tough-minded mentality that they were not going to lose to anybody, and I think that has carried over to so many of them as they became adults.”

“I’m very proud of my career, and not just the wins,” said DeWeese, who has been inducted into the halls of fame at Enka and Reynolds.

“With all the social media out there, I keep up with all my girls. A lot of them have kids who are playing now, and some of them are coaches. That makes me feel like I made a difference.

“And I’m proud that I stayed at Enka the whole time. I had several chances to take other jobs, but I just couldn’t pull myself away from here.”

“Her coaching style helped teach us to be strong, independent women, lessons that went beyond playing ball in high school or college,” said Denise Lindsay, who played volleyball and basketball for DeWeese. “We used to scrimmage the boys, and we learned how to stand up for ourselves.”

DeWeese is enjoying her retirement — when asked what she does now, “I do whatever I want,” she said with a big laugh.

She and her family have had some health issues, but she has found time to officiate volleyball games, where she appreciates the irony of being on the other side of the coach-referee confrontations.

“Turns out, I don’t like it when they yell at me,” she said.

“When we have (officials’ meetings), I tell some of those people, ‘I’m sorry you took all that off me. You shouldn’t have, but I knew how far to push you.’

“I thought I knew the rules, but the first (referee’s) test I took, I made a 68.”

And she is still working on the acceptance that she no longer has a team and players that depend on her.

“I probably need to come to more games (at Enka), but it’s hard for me to kind of separate that I’m not a coach anymore,” she said. “It’s tough for me to watch a game not and coach it. Being able to communicate with the kids and understand what they need, that’s what coaches always want to do.”